Jun 22, 2012

Breaking new ground is never easy. When it passes, the Freelancer Payment Protection Act will be the first law in the nation to protect freelancers from deadbeat clients and its ripples will be felt across the country.

Over the past several weeks, I told you that the fate of the bill rested on the New York State Senate – and it did. The Speaker of the State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, stayed by our side and pushed it through his chamber by an overwhelming margin yesterday. Unfortunately, the Senate didn’t follow suit.

Without you, we wouldn’t have gotten that far. The thousands of calls you made, your legislative office visits, hundreds of Facebook posts and tweets, posts to The World’s Longest Invoice – all were responsible for getting this bill to the very edge of passage.

Throughout the push to get this bill passed, we’ve built powerful alliances that will serve all freelancers well as we move forward.

We had Senate sponsors on both sides of the aisle – 7 Republicans and 18 Democrats – including advocates like Senators Marty Golden, Andrew Lanza, and Daniel Squadron.

In addition to our Assembly and Senate sponsors, these leaders all stepped up for freelancers:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Brooklyn Creative League

Domestic Workers United

Graphic Artists Guild

National Writers Union

Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York

Working Families Party

Writers Guild

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Actors Fund

The race for this law isn’t over. We'll pick up where we left off and keep pushing to get the job done. Let me know on Twitter or Facebook how we can get the Freelancer Payment Protection Act across the finish line next session.